September 10, 2025 • 26 mins
Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock RastaThere was a Buffalo SoldierIn the heart of AmericaStolen from Africa, brought to AmericaFighting on arrival, fighting for survival
Most people know the phrase Buffalo Soldier from Bob Marley’s famous reggae song—but what’s the real history behind it?
On this episode of American History Hotline, host Bob Crawford talks with Cale E. Carter II to uncover the true story of the Buffalo Soldiers.
Discover who these Black regiments were, how they earned their name, and the crucial role they played on the Western frontier, in the Spanish-American War, and beyond. We explore their battles, their struggles with racism during the Jim Crow era, and the lasting legacy they passed on through World War I, World War II, and even into American culture today.
Along the way, we connect the history to Bob Marley’s lyrics, ask what the song got right, and learn how music and memory continue to shape the story of the Buffalo Soldiers.
GUEST: Cale E. Carter II, Director of Exhibitions and Military Historian at the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum in Houston, Texas.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bob Crawford (00:03):
You've reached American History Hotline. You asked the questions, We
get the answers. Leave a message. Hey, there are American
History Hotliners. Your host, Bob Crawford here, happy to be
joining you again for another episode of American History Hotline
and keep those questions coming. The best way to get
(00:23):
us a question is to record a video or a
voice memo on your phone and email it to Americanhistoryhotline
at gmail dot com. That's American History Hotline at gmail
dot com. Okay, today's question is a bit of a
mix between reggae music and history.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hi, Bob, this is Sharon from Casa, Oklahoma, and I'm
familiar with that Bob Marley's song Buffalo Soldiers, but I
never wish sure what a Buffalo soldier was. It really is,
what is the story of the Buffalos.
Bob Crawford (01:01):
Here to help me answer this question today is cale
E Carter, the second director of Exhibitions at the Buffalo
Soldiers National Museum in Houston, Texas. Cale, thanks for joining
us today.
Cale Carter II (01:14):
Thank you for having me on.
Bob Crawford (01:16):
Cale. I have this question as well, like Sharon, because
I was recently rewatching Ken Burns National Parks documentary and
he talks about the Buffalo soldiers at one point in
that So, okay, cale, Before we get into the fuller
story of the Buffalo soldiers, let's start with a brief
(01:40):
explanation of what the term buffalo soldier refers to in
American history.
Cale Carter II (01:46):
So when most people tend to refer to Buffalo soldiers,
they are really referring to black American soldiers who served
on who served in the regular Army on the Western
frontier in the aftermath of the Civil War. So they're
mostly talking about black soldiers who served in the US
(02:06):
Army between eighteen sixty six to around eighteen ninety eight.
They're most taught that time frame.
Bob Crawford (02:14):
Right there, So you're saying they began around eighteen sixty six.
Did a lot of these soldiers serve in the Civil War?
During the Civil.
Cale Carter II (02:23):
War, so when you talk about the percentage of veterans
that the bleasslors that served in the Civil War and
as well as the retorts that came after what we
referred to as the Buffalo soldiers, the numbers are kind
of debated, but some socials say is about roughly ten percent.
Some would say it's higher or lower. But normally when
(02:44):
you talk about the Buffalo soldier regiments. Yes, there were
some veterans of the Civil War that served in those regiments,
but as for the exact number at the moment, nobody
can really give an exact number.
Bob Crawford (02:56):
Right, right, So who signed up to be a Buffalo soldier?
What kind of a man? What background did they usually
come from?
Cale Carter II (03:03):
There was kind of a wide variety of backgrounds. You
had a course, the Civil War veterans who wanted to
continue their service. You had a mix of freedmen who
came out of the North and even some freedmen who
came out of the southern areas like Louisiana, who said, well,
I want to experience a sense of travel and adventure.
(03:23):
Then you had others who were formerly enslave and recently
freed who who said, well, I'm gonna join the army
because hey, this is a way to make have a
stable a state, economically stable life. Because of course, in
the aftermath of the Civil War, in some areas that
might have been economic opportunities, but in other areas that
may not have been. And so with the army having
(03:46):
this creating these regiments, it's like there's a possibility for
someone to say, okay, wal can at least serve make
a career out of serving in the military, perceived food
as well as money and stuff like that. So it
was a very wattswath of people that join and even
and you see as a units move westwhce you see
(04:07):
other groups that join as well. So you have a
few cases of what we would now consider Afro Latinos,
but back then would have been like basically people that
had had African hits that might have came from Mexico
and a few other places and so like, yeah, like
when you talk about the backgrounds of people who served
in these regiments, it's a very diverse background of people.
Bob Crawford (04:26):
Where did the name Buffalo Soldier come from?
Cale Carter II (04:29):
So the name itself is kind of widely debated in
the sense that historically they would say that the name
was given by the Native Americans, But when you talk
to a certain historians, certain historians would say that, oh, well,
they would have attributed to a specific tribe, like I
know some sources. I think it was Robert Lecky who
(04:50):
wrote a book back in the fifties, there was a
sixties or seventies, and he would attribute it to the Cheyenne,
the Cheyenne tribe, and then you had others that were
attributed to trib's pretty much on the central plane, someone
with the Native American tribes that was in the lower
the southwestern frontier. But ultimately from historical research, we really
(05:10):
cannot say which Native American tribe gave the people these
indigit to trying to gave the people the name, and
as for why they got the name, even that is debated.
So some would say that it had to do with
the naturally curly hair and the dark skin that the
soldiers had. Some said it had to do with the
(05:30):
bravery it's and nastiest soldiers on the fire. Some said
it had to do with kind of making connections between
the fact that the black soldiers who on the Native
Americans first encounter, particularly the central central planes in the
winter time, were wearing in addition to having dark skin,
dark eye color, and hair testure, they had buffalo hot
coats and muskrat skin caps on top. And one of
(05:53):
the more recent things I've heard, which even that can
be controversial, is that some of us say that, oh,
they prefer refer to these these men as buffalo as
buffalo soldiers of buffalo men, because they will be killed
like Buffalo essential kind of alluding to their perceived employment
as shock troops. So essentially, like nobody can really pinpoint
how they got the name or really why basically which
(06:17):
group getting the name, why they got the name. But
what's interesting in all my years of researching this is
that you don't only see the black soldiers themselves really
adopting the name until around War One. And so ironically,
even with that, with the blessors that adopt the name,
it's not the soldiers from the regiments per se, because
when we talk about the Buffalo Soldier regiments, we're talking
(06:38):
about the ninth and tenth Cavalry Regiment and the later
the twenty fourth and twenty fifth Infantry. But during and
really after War One, the people that you see that
tend to refer than the name Buffalo Soldiers, especially it
comes the black soldiers aren't really black soldiers from those
regiments per se, but rather black soldiers who were trained
(06:59):
by soldiers those regiments, and they've mostly taken on the
name themselves and assists to kind of pay homage to them.
So case in point, the US Army, if you ask
them what a Buffalo Soldier regiment is, they will tell
you this, it's the tenth Cavalry Regiment. And the reason
why is because the tenth Cavalry Regiment they have the
iconography of Some people will say that that when it
(07:19):
came to the name, it was attributed originally to soldiers
from the tenth Cavalry Regiment. And so when you talk
to the armies, the tenth Calvary is officially the Buffalo Soldiers.
But when we would talk to most military historians or
historians or even like black historians like that, they will
say that the Buffalo Soldier regiments is kind of the
definition on gay before like black soldiers who served on
(07:39):
the Western frontier in the aftermath of the Civil War.
But really to the special American Wars, so that would
be the ninth and tenth Cavalry Regiments and the twenty
fourth and twenty fifth Infantry. And so the reason why
I say all this is because during War One and
even during War TI, you would have black regiments who
refer to themselves as as Buffalo soldiers as well, like
(08:02):
the ninety second Division and a few other units.
Bob Crawford (08:06):
It sounds like there's a lineage right like there is
like from the ninth and the tenth Cavalry to the
twenty fifth Regiment. This tradition is passed on. So when
we look at the original Buffalo soldier, the ninth and
tenth Cavalry, what were their jobs.
Cale Carter II (08:24):
So when you talk about the jobs of the soldiers
on the Western Frontier, their job was a mixture of,
particularly them the cavalry regiments, a mixture of kind of
going out and acting as a rapid response force, like say,
for example, particularly what you see in the case of
the text is like, hey, a ranch got raided, and
so they will go out to try to basically find
(08:45):
out who raided the ranch and basically try to initiate
contact that way. And so normal people talk about Buffalo soldiers,
that's the main book they talk about. But in addition
to doing the combat roles, majority of their roles out
in the West Frontier was mostly infrastructure, like helping build roads,
streaming telegraph wires, acting as an escort for like wagon
(09:08):
trains and convoys that were making their way westward. But
as time goes on, particularly in the eighteen nineties to
early nineteen hundreds, you start seeing their roles starting to
switch from stuff like that to like basically acting as
kind of the precursor to the Park Rangers. Like I
remember you mentioned earlier about the documentaries or with ken
(09:31):
Burns mentioned the Buffalo Soldiers. That's the role that you
start seeing a lot of the regiments start becoming employed
in at the turn of the century to like the
eighteen nineties nineteen hundreds, you start seeing them do that.
You see them go as far north as Alaska where
they're doing kind of similar roles of again, kind of
helping bring a form of kind of civilization and protection
(09:52):
to the people that were going out that way.
Bob Crawford (09:54):
It's really this is really fascinating. This is American History Hotline.
I'm your host Bob Crawford. Today, my guest is cal E. Carter,
the second director of Exhibitions at the Buffalo Soldiers National
Museum in Houston, Texas. We're talking about Buffalo Soldiers, the people,
(10:19):
the men, and the song. All right, Cal, now to
the Sharon's big question connecting the legend of the Buffalo
Soldiers to the song the Bob Marley song. Do you
have any sense of the impact that the song by
Bob Marley and the Whalers has had on people who
(10:40):
are learning the history of the Buffalo Soldiers.
Cale Carter II (10:43):
So from what I've seen is kind of a midst
understanding and appreciation of it. And the reason why I
say that is because on the one hand, with some
of the historians who study the subject matter and they
hear the song at how they kind of get agitated
because they, oh, well, that's the only reason why people
even acknowledge that this history exists. But on the other hand,
(11:06):
with some of the younger historians and even some of
the people I would say that have a kind of
a broader understanding of like the history of the Buffalo Soldiers,
kind of a history of Bob Marley and then also
a broader context. What you end up seeing is that
a lot of the people who hear the song and
they kind of think about like what he's saying and
(11:29):
then kind of related back to the subject matter. It's
mostly kind of viewing the Buffalo Soldiers is kind of
like more so a representation of like, hey, these are
guys that basically at a time that might have to
deal with certain things, but on the other hand, that
they were doing something that was significant and dare I say,
if you go into other aspects that you see like
(11:51):
again towards like World War One and War two later
where these guys go from just being seen as old, well,
you're just black soldiers in the Western frontier to in
the case particularly in like certain black communities, like during
the bility of the Spanish American War, and after being
seen as kind of a form of protection for the
black community as all, as well as kind of a
(12:11):
sense of group, the basically have a sense of pride
and so to kind of bring it back to kind
of the core question. On the one hand, with the song,
there is kind of a mix of I wouldn't say frustration,
but kind of like that, oh, here it comes again,
because that's the only thing we're associated with. But then
there's also an understanding too of like, well, this kind
(12:34):
of shows that the history of the subject. While at
least it's an a way to introduce people that may
not have been introduced to the subject matter, it gives
them a way to start asking questions and saying, okay, well,
let's learn more about this history and why why would
he made a song? Because ironically enough, from a personal perspective,
like I know, the first time I heard Buffalo sois
(12:56):
mentioned in the song ironically wasn't through by Marley. It
was this guy named George Duke. It was George Duke,
the great jazz artist exactly. So like I grew up,
I grew up on George Duke's I would say, mid
to later albums. So like like I remember the album,
I don't remember the songs because it was from an
(13:16):
album called Illusions. And ironically, the way that he describes
the Buffalo Soldiers is I would say fairly accurate, because
like it said, hey, like these guys come about, but
it's mostly kind of an instrumental song. And that's how
I was first introduced to the Buffalo Soldiers as a kid.
And then when I started working in the field of
Buffalo soldier history in Black military history, that's when I
(13:38):
started hearing more about the Bob Marley aspect of it.
Bob Crawford (13:41):
Okay, so let's talk about a lyric in the Bob
Marley song. And by the way, I love the George
Duke reference. I'm a fan myself. Okay. In the song,
there's a lyric trodden through San Juan in the Arms
of America. This is Is this a reference to the
Buffalo soldier's role in the Spanish American War?
Cale Carter II (14:00):
That's from my understanding, yes, and really it actually, and
it's interesting that that he brings that up, because if
you think about the Buffalo Soldiers in terms of their
understanding within the American public, it wouldn't be until the
Spanish American War where these units are actually kind of
acknowledged and kind of spoken about holly in the American
(14:24):
public because prior to in the Western Frontier, they're out there,
but the only people that would know a bottom is
people that are in the proximity of them. But with
the Spanish American War, when they come back from the
Western Frontier, they started heading back eastwards. That's when you
start seeing like aspects of the Black courrinity started knowing
about them more broadly. But when you talk about the
success in the Spanish American War, that's when you start
(14:47):
seeing Americans start knowing about these regiments because you have
between their actions while fighting in these battles, but then
you also have people like Teddy Roosevelt others who sing
the hot praises of these soldier. So with him adding
that line in there, that does allude to the kind
of not with the service in the Spanish American War,
but kind of like the way that people start understanding
(15:10):
and really start acknowledging their service in terms of kind
of the American historical standpoint.
Bob Crawford (15:15):
Well, you're talking about the Spanish American War. This is
the height of Jim Crow in the United States. So
how were these soldiers treated during and after the war?
How were the Buffalo soldiers treated.
Cale Carter II (15:30):
So prior to the war when they're on the Western
frontier while they are dealing with racism and systemic racism,
there's this one instant point that I want to say,
one of the gull Out used to work with made
this a while. On the Western frontier, people would be racist.
You only could be so racist to someone who you
need to protect you. Whereas when you see those the
(15:52):
regiments start coming back to the Deep South in preparation
of stage for Cuba, this is when you start seeing
a lot of the soldiers start encountering like, like really
truly systemic Jim Crow laws. And almost immediately there's a
series of clashes. So like you have there was this
one clash at the thing that the curtain Alabama, there
(16:13):
was a class at a curtain Florida.
Bob Crawford (16:15):
Well, when you say, what do you mean back clash.
Cale Carter II (16:18):
So by clash, it's normally where you would have these
soldiers that will return to the Deep South. And again
when a lot of these soldiers might have left or
made their way out, they might have made their way
out during the reconstruction period, and during that time the
South was in kind of a different flux to where
on the one hand, recently free people were gaining rights,
(16:38):
but you still kind of had pushback from the people
that were formerly in power that was in the South.
So it was come of this mix to where you
could gain freedoms or gain the fruits of citizenship, but
at the same time it was pushedback, but you might
have had some protections. Whereas by the time they come
back in the eighteen nineties, this is where you start
seeing where again Jim Crow is setting own black codes
(17:01):
are set in stone. And one of the things that
kind of comes up with these with their arrival of
these black troops, particularly out of southern areas, is like
I mentioned before, on the one hand, the black communities
are like, wow, these guys are these are soldiers, they're
professional soldiers, and like there a sense of pride. But
in a lot of the smaller communities it becomes a
(17:22):
concern because suddenly you have a regiment like you may
have a small black population that by and large is
fairly contained. But then suddenly you may have a regiment
or two that's anywhere between six hundred to one thousand,
in some cases two thousand that are armed, that are trained,
and more importantly that they will in many cases refuse
(17:44):
to adhere to Jim Crow laws because they're like, okay, well,
out in the West, we're treated not really as full equals,
but we're treated with a level of respect, whereas here
we're not treated with that same respect. And it's like, well,
if you're not going to respect me as an individual,
at least respect the uniform that I'm serving with, which
is the US Army.
Bob Crawford (18:03):
So you talk about this lineage right of the Buffalo Soldiers.
So you have the original ninth and tenth cavalryes, the
original Buffalo Soldiers, and then the Buffalo Soldiers who serve
in World War One, and then you talk about the
ninety second was it in World War Two?
Cale Carter II (18:22):
Well? Ninety second history starts in World War One? Okay, okay,
but I normally the legacy component that really starts in
earnest during World War One, but it really takes off
during War tiok So by the time World War One
comes around, in the drive to get black soldiers or
black people to participate in the war effort as well
(18:43):
as a list, you start seeing where some people start
highlighting the stories of blacks that serve them the military prior
and up to that point, really prior to the Spanish
American War. The main conflict that people tend to know
about in the American that's caused the American Civil War,
and while there still was a lot of black so
that served in the American Civil War, the Spanish American
(19:05):
War was really that first conflict since the Civil War
where you can make the arment that basically America as
a country both north and southwest united and find against
a common enemy. And so because of that, you see
where some of the black leadership and some of the
black advocates started kind of highlight like, hey, these are
guys that like basically be like the guys who fought
(19:26):
and fought against the Spanish and Cuba and stuff like that.
And then from the military side, when they start having
to raise these black units because keeping minded even though
it's easy for us, it's kind of difficult for us
to think about this now, but back in World War One,
and even at the start of World War Two, America
didn't really have a large military like he was mostly
(19:46):
a frontier army, and so we had to rapidly expand
the army. And we rapidly expanded the army. That also
included the rapid expansion of black units. And so to
help ease that rapid expansion, to help celebrate the training,
you see where a lot of veteran soldiers from the
ninth Cavalry Regiment, the tenth Cavalry Regiment, the twenty fourth
(20:07):
and twenty fifth Infantry Regiments. They're literally in a sense
kind of taken from their home regiment or basically transferred
from their home regiment to these new regiments. So like
in the case of the ninety second, some guys end
up in the three sixty seventh Infantry Regiment or in
Pioneer Infantry Regiments, Labor Battalion, stuff like that. And so
because a lot of these guys that transfer to the regiments,
(20:30):
some of these guys have been in the military from
some have been in there for a few years, but
you had some there was guys of a career army.
So some of these guys have served since the eighteen eighties,
and like if you imagine you had like the there's
like a mood or something that you have a gruff
old sergeant that comes in like normal, we see a gruffo.
So they come in and young at the troops. With
a lot of these guys that's coming in, some of
(20:51):
them would have a certain degree of respect for him
because like, hey, this guy like he's traveled, he saw
some things, and so what you in of seeing is
that with some of these older sergeants and older NCLs
that that train these guys, they started telling them about
oh we heard that we was called this, but it
might have been like we don't really know how the
story got out or how they told them. But for
(21:14):
some reason, the younger guys that was brought in for
the military service due War One, they cleave to the
like oh, like wow, because it's kind of a seene
as the sense of like, hey, like they're from our community.
These guys have proven their metal. And also if you
about to tell us, it's kind of a cool nickname,
so it's like okay, well so it's like, oh, well
they're called Buffalo soldiers. Will how do we carry this
(21:37):
on the Oh, we're the Buffalos. And then in fact,
so the first regiment you see that takes on that
monikers as the regiment I mentioned before, the three sixty
seventh Infantry Regiment. And in fact, if people are curious
about that, like they can actually the National Archive had
there though it was a light regimental history booklet of
the throught seventh and War one, and they actually had
(21:59):
their regimental crest and it literally has a buffalo head.
And I'm kind of paraphrasing what the information says, but
it essentially says that, hey, we take this name to
pay homage to the guys who came before us, who
were referred to by the Native Americans as buffalo soldiers.
And so you see it kind of take off a
little bit in War One, but by the time w
(22:20):
War iiO comes around in nineteen forty one, that's when
you see it takes off to a different level because
on the one hand, with the actual Buffalo soldier regiments,
they're still around at surgated units by this point, but
the ninth and tenth Cavalry, they're literally the last of
the horse cavalry in the US Army by the timel
War iiO comes around, most of the cavalry guys, they
(22:42):
traded their horses for tanks, and so with the ninth
and tenth and later what became them was the Second
Calvary Division. They literally are the last horse soldiers in
the US Army, where these guys are trained how to
ride horses, how to do horse drill and basically kind
of do comboni's like true cal And of course the
(23:02):
twenty fourth and twenty fifth they fight in the Pacific
during this time. But in addition, as in World War One,
you had where a lot of these guys were kind
of sent to other regiments to help train them. So
you see guys who was in these original Buffalo soldier
regiments ending up in everything from tank battalions, tank destroyer battalions,
field artillery units, field artillery battalions. And so what's interested
(23:25):
is that when you look through the regimental records of
some of these units, like a prominent example will be
the eight forty six Tank Destroyer Battalion out of Camp Livingston, Louisiana. Like,
even though the regiment will ultimately get disbanded by nineteen
forty three, when you look at the regimental crest and
even the name they have a buffalo on their regimental crest,
(23:48):
and they literally say, like the reason why we take
this name we have a buffalo on is the payol
marsh and the guys who came before. So, as you
mentioned before, it's kind of a sense of like, hey,
let's carry on this legacy of the guys who served
before us, and kind of carried on as long as
we can. Now by the time War two ends, and
when you get to nineteen forty eight, the order to
(24:10):
integrate the army comes through, and by that point the
only regiment of the original Buffalo Soldiers that's left is
the twenty fourth Infantry because the ninth and tenth Cavalry
they were deactivated in nineteen forty four. The twenty fifth
Infantry regiment by large was deactivated by nineteen forty six.
Like I know, some of the research I was doing,
(24:31):
some of the regiments, some of the battalions survived on
its training units and various compasses until about nineteen fifty.
But with the twenty fourth beating the last of the
original regiment, you see where the legacy starts kind of
going from again kind of the focus on the specific
regiments to mostly black soldiers who served in the surrogated
(24:53):
Army and kind of came under the tutelage of those men.
And so when the twenty fourth Infantry Regiment is deactivated
in nineteen fifty one and they're said, okay, well, look
like that regiment is officially disbanded, that kind of marks
the end of the original Buffalo Soldiers.
Bob Crawford (25:11):
Cale, I've enjoyed our time together so much. Thank you
so much for answering Sharon's question. I've been talking to
cale E Carter, the second director of exhibitions at the
Buffalo Soldiers' National Museum in Houston, Texas. If you're down there,
check it out. Say hello to Cale. I know I will. Cale,
(25:31):
thank you for joining us today on American History Hotline.
Cale Carter II (25:34):
Thank y'all. Hopefully'll see y'all next time.
Bob Crawford (25:39):
You've been listening to American History Hotline, a production of
iHeart Podcasts and Scratch Track Productions. The show is executive
producer is James Morrison. Our executive producers from iHeart are
Jordan Runtall and Jason English. Original music composed by me
Bob Crawford. Please keep in touch. Our email is Americanhistory
(26:02):
Hotline at gmail dot com. If you like the show.
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(26:23):
Thanks so much for listening, See you next week.
You've reached American History Hotline. You asked the questions, We
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and keep those questions coming. The best way to get
(00:23):
us a question is to record a video or a
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dot com. Okay, today's question is a bit of a
mix between reggae music and history.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hi, Bob, this is Sharon from Casa, Oklahoma, and I'm
familiar with that Bob Marley's song Buffalo Soldiers, but I
never wish sure what a Buffalo soldier was. It really is,
what is the story of the Buffalos.
Bob Crawford (01:01):
Here to help me answer this question today is cale
E Carter, the second director of Exhibitions at the Buffalo
Soldiers National Museum in Houston, Texas. Cale, thanks for joining
us today.
Cale Carter II (01:14):
Thank you for having me on.
Bob Crawford (01:16):
Cale. I have this question as well, like Sharon, because
I was recently rewatching Ken Burns National Parks documentary and
he talks about the Buffalo soldiers at one point in
that So, okay, cale, Before we get into the fuller
story of the Buffalo soldiers, let's start with a brief
(01:40):
explanation of what the term buffalo soldier refers to in
American history.
Cale Carter II (01:46):
So when most people tend to refer to Buffalo soldiers,
they are really referring to black American soldiers who served
on who served in the regular Army on the Western
frontier in the aftermath of the Civil War. So they're
mostly talking about black soldiers who served in the US
(02:06):
Army between eighteen sixty six to around eighteen ninety eight.
They're most taught that time frame.
Bob Crawford (02:14):
Right there, So you're saying they began around eighteen sixty six.
Did a lot of these soldiers serve in the Civil War?
During the Civil.
Cale Carter II (02:23):
War, so when you talk about the percentage of veterans
that the bleasslors that served in the Civil War and
as well as the retorts that came after what we
referred to as the Buffalo soldiers, the numbers are kind
of debated, but some socials say is about roughly ten percent.
Some would say it's higher or lower. But normally when
(02:44):
you talk about the Buffalo soldier regiments. Yes, there were
some veterans of the Civil War that served in those regiments,
but as for the exact number at the moment, nobody
can really give an exact number.
Bob Crawford (02:56):
Right, right, So who signed up to be a Buffalo soldier?
What kind of a man? What background did they usually
come from?
Cale Carter II (03:03):
There was kind of a wide variety of backgrounds. You
had a course, the Civil War veterans who wanted to
continue their service. You had a mix of freedmen who
came out of the North and even some freedmen who
came out of the southern areas like Louisiana, who said, well,
I want to experience a sense of travel and adventure.
(03:23):
Then you had others who were formerly enslave and recently
freed who who said, well, I'm gonna join the army
because hey, this is a way to make have a
stable a state, economically stable life. Because of course, in
the aftermath of the Civil War, in some areas that
might have been economic opportunities, but in other areas that
may not have been. And so with the army having
(03:46):
this creating these regiments, it's like there's a possibility for
someone to say, okay, wal can at least serve make
a career out of serving in the military, perceived food
as well as money and stuff like that. So it
was a very wattswath of people that join and even
and you see as a units move westwhce you see
(04:07):
other groups that join as well. So you have a
few cases of what we would now consider Afro Latinos,
but back then would have been like basically people that
had had African hits that might have came from Mexico
and a few other places and so like, yeah, like
when you talk about the backgrounds of people who served
in these regiments, it's a very diverse background of people.
Bob Crawford (04:26):
Where did the name Buffalo Soldier come from?
Cale Carter II (04:29):
So the name itself is kind of widely debated in
the sense that historically they would say that the name
was given by the Native Americans, But when you talk
to a certain historians, certain historians would say that, oh, well,
they would have attributed to a specific tribe, like I
know some sources. I think it was Robert Lecky who
(04:50):
wrote a book back in the fifties, there was a
sixties or seventies, and he would attribute it to the Cheyenne,
the Cheyenne tribe, and then you had others that were
attributed to trib's pretty much on the central plane, someone
with the Native American tribes that was in the lower
the southwestern frontier. But ultimately from historical research, we really
(05:10):
cannot say which Native American tribe gave the people these
indigit to trying to gave the people the name, and
as for why they got the name, even that is debated.
So some would say that it had to do with
the naturally curly hair and the dark skin that the
soldiers had. Some said it had to do with the
(05:30):
bravery it's and nastiest soldiers on the fire. Some said
it had to do with kind of making connections between
the fact that the black soldiers who on the Native
Americans first encounter, particularly the central central planes in the
winter time, were wearing in addition to having dark skin,
dark eye color, and hair testure, they had buffalo hot
coats and muskrat skin caps on top. And one of
(05:53):
the more recent things I've heard, which even that can
be controversial, is that some of us say that, oh,
they prefer refer to these these men as buffalo as
buffalo soldiers of buffalo men, because they will be killed
like Buffalo essential kind of alluding to their perceived employment
as shock troops. So essentially, like nobody can really pinpoint
how they got the name or really why basically which
(06:17):
group getting the name, why they got the name. But
what's interesting in all my years of researching this is
that you don't only see the black soldiers themselves really
adopting the name until around War One. And so ironically,
even with that, with the blessors that adopt the name,
it's not the soldiers from the regiments per se, because
when we talk about the Buffalo Soldier regiments, we're talking
(06:38):
about the ninth and tenth Cavalry Regiment and the later
the twenty fourth and twenty fifth Infantry. But during and
really after War One, the people that you see that
tend to refer than the name Buffalo Soldiers, especially it
comes the black soldiers aren't really black soldiers from those
regiments per se, but rather black soldiers who were trained
(06:59):
by soldiers those regiments, and they've mostly taken on the
name themselves and assists to kind of pay homage to them.
So case in point, the US Army, if you ask
them what a Buffalo Soldier regiment is, they will tell
you this, it's the tenth Cavalry Regiment. And the reason
why is because the tenth Cavalry Regiment they have the
iconography of Some people will say that that when it
(07:19):
came to the name, it was attributed originally to soldiers
from the tenth Cavalry Regiment. And so when you talk
to the armies, the tenth Calvary is officially the Buffalo Soldiers.
But when we would talk to most military historians or
historians or even like black historians like that, they will
say that the Buffalo Soldier regiments is kind of the
definition on gay before like black soldiers who served on
(07:39):
the Western frontier in the aftermath of the Civil War.
But really to the special American Wars, so that would
be the ninth and tenth Cavalry Regiments and the twenty
fourth and twenty fifth Infantry. And so the reason why
I say all this is because during War One and
even during War TI, you would have black regiments who
refer to themselves as as Buffalo soldiers as well, like
(08:02):
the ninety second Division and a few other units.
Bob Crawford (08:06):
It sounds like there's a lineage right like there is
like from the ninth and the tenth Cavalry to the
twenty fifth Regiment. This tradition is passed on. So when
we look at the original Buffalo soldier, the ninth and
tenth Cavalry, what were their jobs.
Cale Carter II (08:24):
So when you talk about the jobs of the soldiers
on the Western Frontier, their job was a mixture of,
particularly them the cavalry regiments, a mixture of kind of
going out and acting as a rapid response force, like say,
for example, particularly what you see in the case of
the text is like, hey, a ranch got raided, and
so they will go out to try to basically find
(08:45):
out who raided the ranch and basically try to initiate
contact that way. And so normal people talk about Buffalo soldiers,
that's the main book they talk about. But in addition
to doing the combat roles, majority of their roles out
in the West Frontier was mostly infrastructure, like helping build roads,
streaming telegraph wires, acting as an escort for like wagon
(09:08):
trains and convoys that were making their way westward. But
as time goes on, particularly in the eighteen nineties to
early nineteen hundreds, you start seeing their roles starting to
switch from stuff like that to like basically acting as
kind of the precursor to the Park Rangers. Like I
remember you mentioned earlier about the documentaries or with ken
(09:31):
Burns mentioned the Buffalo Soldiers. That's the role that you
start seeing a lot of the regiments start becoming employed
in at the turn of the century to like the
eighteen nineties nineteen hundreds, you start seeing them do that.
You see them go as far north as Alaska where
they're doing kind of similar roles of again, kind of
helping bring a form of kind of civilization and protection
(09:52):
to the people that were going out that way.
Bob Crawford (09:54):
It's really this is really fascinating. This is American History Hotline.
I'm your host Bob Crawford. Today, my guest is cal E. Carter,
the second director of Exhibitions at the Buffalo Soldiers National
Museum in Houston, Texas. We're talking about Buffalo Soldiers, the people,
(10:19):
the men, and the song. All right, Cal, now to
the Sharon's big question connecting the legend of the Buffalo
Soldiers to the song the Bob Marley song. Do you
have any sense of the impact that the song by
Bob Marley and the Whalers has had on people who
(10:40):
are learning the history of the Buffalo Soldiers.
Cale Carter II (10:43):
So from what I've seen is kind of a midst
understanding and appreciation of it. And the reason why I
say that is because on the one hand, with some
of the historians who study the subject matter and they
hear the song at how they kind of get agitated
because they, oh, well, that's the only reason why people
even acknowledge that this history exists. But on the other hand,
(11:06):
with some of the younger historians and even some of
the people I would say that have a kind of
a broader understanding of like the history of the Buffalo Soldiers,
kind of a history of Bob Marley and then also
a broader context. What you end up seeing is that
a lot of the people who hear the song and
they kind of think about like what he's saying and
(11:29):
then kind of related back to the subject matter. It's
mostly kind of viewing the Buffalo Soldiers is kind of
like more so a representation of like, hey, these are
guys that basically at a time that might have to
deal with certain things, but on the other hand, that
they were doing something that was significant and dare I say,
if you go into other aspects that you see like
(11:51):
again towards like World War One and War two later
where these guys go from just being seen as old, well,
you're just black soldiers in the Western frontier to in
the case particularly in like certain black communities, like during
the bility of the Spanish American War, and after being
seen as kind of a form of protection for the
black community as all, as well as kind of a
(12:11):
sense of group, the basically have a sense of pride
and so to kind of bring it back to kind
of the core question. On the one hand, with the song,
there is kind of a mix of I wouldn't say frustration,
but kind of like that, oh, here it comes again,
because that's the only thing we're associated with. But then
there's also an understanding too of like, well, this kind
(12:34):
of shows that the history of the subject. While at
least it's an a way to introduce people that may
not have been introduced to the subject matter, it gives
them a way to start asking questions and saying, okay, well,
let's learn more about this history and why why would
he made a song? Because ironically enough, from a personal perspective,
like I know, the first time I heard Buffalo sois
(12:56):
mentioned in the song ironically wasn't through by Marley. It
was this guy named George Duke. It was George Duke,
the great jazz artist exactly. So like I grew up,
I grew up on George Duke's I would say, mid
to later albums. So like like I remember the album,
I don't remember the songs because it was from an
(13:16):
album called Illusions. And ironically, the way that he describes
the Buffalo Soldiers is I would say fairly accurate, because
like it said, hey, like these guys come about, but
it's mostly kind of an instrumental song. And that's how
I was first introduced to the Buffalo Soldiers as a kid.
And then when I started working in the field of
Buffalo soldier history in Black military history, that's when I
(13:38):
started hearing more about the Bob Marley aspect of it.
Bob Crawford (13:41):
Okay, so let's talk about a lyric in the Bob
Marley song. And by the way, I love the George
Duke reference. I'm a fan myself. Okay. In the song,
there's a lyric trodden through San Juan in the Arms
of America. This is Is this a reference to the
Buffalo soldier's role in the Spanish American War?
Cale Carter II (14:00):
That's from my understanding, yes, and really it actually, and
it's interesting that that he brings that up, because if
you think about the Buffalo Soldiers in terms of their
understanding within the American public, it wouldn't be until the
Spanish American War where these units are actually kind of
acknowledged and kind of spoken about holly in the American
(14:24):
public because prior to in the Western Frontier, they're out there,
but the only people that would know a bottom is
people that are in the proximity of them. But with
the Spanish American War, when they come back from the
Western Frontier, they started heading back eastwards. That's when you
start seeing like aspects of the Black courrinity started knowing
about them more broadly. But when you talk about the
success in the Spanish American War, that's when you start
(14:47):
seeing Americans start knowing about these regiments because you have
between their actions while fighting in these battles, but then
you also have people like Teddy Roosevelt others who sing
the hot praises of these soldier. So with him adding
that line in there, that does allude to the kind
of not with the service in the Spanish American War,
but kind of like the way that people start understanding
(15:10):
and really start acknowledging their service in terms of kind
of the American historical standpoint.
Bob Crawford (15:15):
Well, you're talking about the Spanish American War. This is
the height of Jim Crow in the United States. So
how were these soldiers treated during and after the war?
How were the Buffalo soldiers treated.
Cale Carter II (15:30):
So prior to the war when they're on the Western
frontier while they are dealing with racism and systemic racism,
there's this one instant point that I want to say,
one of the gull Out used to work with made
this a while. On the Western frontier, people would be racist.
You only could be so racist to someone who you
need to protect you. Whereas when you see those the
(15:52):
regiments start coming back to the Deep South in preparation
of stage for Cuba, this is when you start seeing
a lot of the soldiers start encountering like, like really
truly systemic Jim Crow laws. And almost immediately there's a
series of clashes. So like you have there was this
one clash at the thing that the curtain Alabama, there
(16:13):
was a class at a curtain Florida.
Bob Crawford (16:15):
Well, when you say, what do you mean back clash.
Cale Carter II (16:18):
So by clash, it's normally where you would have these
soldiers that will return to the Deep South. And again
when a lot of these soldiers might have left or
made their way out, they might have made their way
out during the reconstruction period, and during that time the
South was in kind of a different flux to where
on the one hand, recently free people were gaining rights,
(16:38):
but you still kind of had pushback from the people
that were formerly in power that was in the South.
So it was come of this mix to where you
could gain freedoms or gain the fruits of citizenship, but
at the same time it was pushedback, but you might
have had some protections. Whereas by the time they come
back in the eighteen nineties, this is where you start
seeing where again Jim Crow is setting own black codes
(17:01):
are set in stone. And one of the things that
kind of comes up with these with their arrival of
these black troops, particularly out of southern areas, is like
I mentioned before, on the one hand, the black communities
are like, wow, these guys are these are soldiers, they're
professional soldiers, and like there a sense of pride. But
in a lot of the smaller communities it becomes a
(17:22):
concern because suddenly you have a regiment like you may
have a small black population that by and large is
fairly contained. But then suddenly you may have a regiment
or two that's anywhere between six hundred to one thousand,
in some cases two thousand that are armed, that are trained,
and more importantly that they will in many cases refuse
(17:44):
to adhere to Jim Crow laws because they're like, okay, well,
out in the West, we're treated not really as full equals,
but we're treated with a level of respect, whereas here
we're not treated with that same respect. And it's like, well,
if you're not going to respect me as an individual,
at least respect the uniform that I'm serving with, which
is the US Army.
Bob Crawford (18:03):
So you talk about this lineage right of the Buffalo Soldiers.
So you have the original ninth and tenth cavalryes, the
original Buffalo Soldiers, and then the Buffalo Soldiers who serve
in World War One, and then you talk about the
ninety second was it in World War Two?
Cale Carter II (18:22):
Well? Ninety second history starts in World War One? Okay, okay,
but I normally the legacy component that really starts in
earnest during World War One, but it really takes off
during War tiok So by the time World War One
comes around, in the drive to get black soldiers or
black people to participate in the war effort as well
(18:43):
as a list, you start seeing where some people start
highlighting the stories of blacks that serve them the military prior
and up to that point, really prior to the Spanish
American War. The main conflict that people tend to know
about in the American that's caused the American Civil War,
and while there still was a lot of black so
that served in the American Civil War, the Spanish American
(19:05):
War was really that first conflict since the Civil War
where you can make the arment that basically America as
a country both north and southwest united and find against
a common enemy. And so because of that, you see
where some of the black leadership and some of the
black advocates started kind of highlight like, hey, these are
guys that like basically be like the guys who fought
(19:26):
and fought against the Spanish and Cuba and stuff like that.
And then from the military side, when they start having
to raise these black units because keeping minded even though
it's easy for us, it's kind of difficult for us
to think about this now, but back in World War One,
and even at the start of World War Two, America
didn't really have a large military like he was mostly
(19:46):
a frontier army, and so we had to rapidly expand
the army. And we rapidly expanded the army. That also
included the rapid expansion of black units. And so to
help ease that rapid expansion, to help celebrate the training,
you see where a lot of veteran soldiers from the
ninth Cavalry Regiment, the tenth Cavalry Regiment, the twenty fourth
(20:07):
and twenty fifth Infantry Regiments. They're literally in a sense
kind of taken from their home regiment or basically transferred
from their home regiment to these new regiments. So like
in the case of the ninety second, some guys end
up in the three sixty seventh Infantry Regiment or in
Pioneer Infantry Regiments, Labor Battalion, stuff like that. And so
because a lot of these guys that transfer to the regiments,
(20:30):
some of these guys have been in the military from
some have been in there for a few years, but
you had some there was guys of a career army.
So some of these guys have served since the eighteen eighties,
and like if you imagine you had like the there's
like a mood or something that you have a gruff
old sergeant that comes in like normal, we see a gruffo.
So they come in and young at the troops. With
a lot of these guys that's coming in, some of
(20:51):
them would have a certain degree of respect for him
because like, hey, this guy like he's traveled, he saw
some things, and so what you in of seeing is
that with some of these older sergeants and older NCLs
that that train these guys, they started telling them about
oh we heard that we was called this, but it
might have been like we don't really know how the
story got out or how they told them. But for
(21:14):
some reason, the younger guys that was brought in for
the military service due War One, they cleave to the
like oh, like wow, because it's kind of a seene
as the sense of like, hey, like they're from our community.
These guys have proven their metal. And also if you
about to tell us, it's kind of a cool nickname,
so it's like okay, well so it's like, oh, well
they're called Buffalo soldiers. Will how do we carry this
(21:37):
on the Oh, we're the Buffalos. And then in fact,
so the first regiment you see that takes on that
monikers as the regiment I mentioned before, the three sixty
seventh Infantry Regiment. And in fact, if people are curious
about that, like they can actually the National Archive had
there though it was a light regimental history booklet of
the throught seventh and War one, and they actually had
(21:59):
their regimental crest and it literally has a buffalo head.
And I'm kind of paraphrasing what the information says, but
it essentially says that, hey, we take this name to
pay homage to the guys who came before us, who
were referred to by the Native Americans as buffalo soldiers.
And so you see it kind of take off a
little bit in War One, but by the time w
(22:20):
War iiO comes around in nineteen forty one, that's when
you see it takes off to a different level because
on the one hand, with the actual Buffalo soldier regiments,
they're still around at surgated units by this point, but
the ninth and tenth Cavalry, they're literally the last of
the horse cavalry in the US Army by the timel
War iiO comes around, most of the cavalry guys, they
(22:42):
traded their horses for tanks, and so with the ninth
and tenth and later what became them was the Second
Calvary Division. They literally are the last horse soldiers in
the US Army, where these guys are trained how to
ride horses, how to do horse drill and basically kind
of do comboni's like true cal And of course the
(23:02):
twenty fourth and twenty fifth they fight in the Pacific
during this time. But in addition, as in World War One,
you had where a lot of these guys were kind
of sent to other regiments to help train them. So
you see guys who was in these original Buffalo soldier
regiments ending up in everything from tank battalions, tank destroyer battalions,
field artillery units, field artillery battalions. And so what's interested
(23:25):
is that when you look through the regimental records of
some of these units, like a prominent example will be
the eight forty six Tank Destroyer Battalion out of Camp Livingston, Louisiana. Like,
even though the regiment will ultimately get disbanded by nineteen
forty three, when you look at the regimental crest and
even the name they have a buffalo on their regimental crest,
(23:48):
and they literally say, like the reason why we take
this name we have a buffalo on is the payol
marsh and the guys who came before. So, as you
mentioned before, it's kind of a sense of like, hey,
let's carry on this legacy of the guys who served
before us, and kind of carried on as long as
we can. Now by the time War two ends, and
when you get to nineteen forty eight, the order to
(24:10):
integrate the army comes through, and by that point the
only regiment of the original Buffalo Soldiers that's left is
the twenty fourth Infantry because the ninth and tenth Cavalry
they were deactivated in nineteen forty four. The twenty fifth
Infantry regiment by large was deactivated by nineteen forty six.
Like I know, some of the research I was doing,
(24:31):
some of the regiments, some of the battalions survived on
its training units and various compasses until about nineteen fifty.
But with the twenty fourth beating the last of the
original regiment, you see where the legacy starts kind of
going from again kind of the focus on the specific
regiments to mostly black soldiers who served in the surrogated
(24:53):
Army and kind of came under the tutelage of those men.
And so when the twenty fourth Infantry Regiment is deactivated
in nineteen fifty one and they're said, okay, well, look
like that regiment is officially disbanded, that kind of marks
the end of the original Buffalo Soldiers.
Bob Crawford (25:11):
Cale, I've enjoyed our time together so much. Thank you
so much for answering Sharon's question. I've been talking to
cale E Carter, the second director of exhibitions at the
Buffalo Soldiers' National Museum in Houston, Texas. If you're down there,
check it out. Say hello to Cale. I know I will. Cale,
(25:31):
thank you for joining us today on American History Hotline.
Cale Carter II (25:34):
Thank y'all. Hopefully'll see y'all next time.
Bob Crawford (25:39):
You've been listening to American History Hotline, a production of
iHeart Podcasts and Scratch Track Productions. The show is executive
producer is James Morrison. Our executive producers from iHeart are
Jordan Runtall and Jason English. Original music composed by me
Bob Crawford. Please keep in touch. Our email is Americanhistory
(26:02):
Hotline at gmail dot com. If you like the show.
Please tell your friends and leave us a review. In
Apple Podcasts, I'm your host, Bob Crawford. Feel free to
hit me up on social media to ask a history
question or to let me know what you think of
the show. You can find me at Bob Crawford Base.
(26:23):
Thanks so much for listening, See you next week.
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